How’s Your Handwriting? Good enough for a card… it can be!

Hi friends! I am going to come clean with you and admit that I have lousy handwriting. It is a barely legible half cursive, half printed chicken scratch mess. Anyone reading a handwritten note from me would believe I was a doctor! (OK the only people who will get that joke will have to be old enough to remember when doctors wrote paper prescriptions I guess LOL!) The fact is I don’t take the time I should to write neatly and if  you think about writing as “drawing your letters” you can make them look a lot better!

In today’s video we are going to make a pretty stamped watercolor card with a hand written sentiment that will be pretty enough to impress your 3rd grade cursive teacher! Plus I’ll share my 5 tips for prettier handwriting!

Tutorial sponsored by Rubber Stamp Tapestry! Get FREE USA (All 50 States, Puerto Rico & Guam) shipping on orders of $20+ throughout the month of March with Coupon Code: FRUGALFREESHIPPING New to peg stamping? Become a Peg Stamp VIP here you’ll get an instant coupon for 20% off Rubber Stamp Tapestry stamps plus the deepest weekly discounts available! Coupon only applies to new customers.

Supplies:

• Succulents UM Stamp Set (I designed this! Woohoo!)
• Black waterproof ink (Ranger Archival)

Other supplies (Affiliate links used)

• Black waterproof pen (I am using the Jane Davenport Inkcredible pen filled with fountain pen safe waterproof ink)
• Watercolor pencils (I used Spectrum AquaBlends because there are some pretty subtle colors)
• Watercolors: Prima Pastel Dreams
• Watercolor brushes
• Brush Markers (I used MozArt but any water based brush marker with a good tip should work fine)
• Watercolor paper (I used the smoother back side or Arteza watercolor paper)
• Kraft Cardstock
• Pattern Paper (American Crafts Dear Lizzy Serendipity 12×12 pad)

5 Tips to quickly make your handwriting look better (and these tips work because I have terrible handwriting!)

1. Make guide lines with pencil.
2. keep the vertical lines of the letters parallel to one another.
3. Try to keep an even space between letters.
4. Press on your pen more on the down strokes to make thicker lines and lift upon the upstrokes for thinner lines.
5. Make the letters look crisper by going over the letters with a fine black fountain pen. Add swirls, loops and flourishes to dress it up with the same black pen.

I also wanted to add some info on the wreath card that I was frustrated with in case anyone like it and wanted to try it. Let me know if you want a tutorial on this and I can do one. Basically I punched a circle and folded it in half a couple of times so it looked like a pie with 8 slices, traced the circle on paper and marked each fold. Then I stamped the jade succulent on every other mark. then I masked and filled in stamping with other succulents repeating them around the circle. It looked too cluttered to me so I scrapped the idea but it would be pretty if it was a bit more sparse I think.

I do think it looks better now that I have stepped away from it. I think when I am getting frustrated by a project I see it with “ugly eyes” and it often looks OK later. What do you think? I hope you try some handwriting on your next card and til next time happy crafting!

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